Steady as he goes: an under-the-radar attitude and recalling a little brotherly mentoring have Bobby Labonte quietly climbing the top 10.(NASCAR)

Bobby Labonte meanders to his appointed spot, a round table draped with a black cloth, a long-legged director's-style chair behind it. The table, like the others at this media day event, was designated with a cardboard placard bearing his name.

"I should have had this a while ago," he says. "I needed this for the autograph session."

Labonte and several other drivers had been at a table, greeting a long line of fans--or, in this case, alleged fans--and signing autographs.

"This woman said, 'Now, who are you again?'" Labonte says, laughing at the memory. "Then she said, 'What series do you drive on?'"

A light bulb clicks on for Labonte, one of those why-didn't-I-think-of-that-then? moments.

"I should have said 'The Winston Cup Series,' just to see if she'd catch on to that," Labonte says.

Bobby Labonte, 40, is in fact residing in some netherworld of NASCAR drivers. He is a star, to be sure; he has 21 Cup wins and was the series champion in 2000. But Labonte is a star along the lines of a Tim Duncan, for whom a layup is as good as a dunk, or Pete Sampras, a steady machine with little panache.